Britain, Anarchist Federation ORGANISE! #84 - Book review:
The Method of Freedom: An Errico Malatesta Reader. edited by
David Turcato. (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
Davide Turcato has written on Errico Malatesta in his Making Sense of Anarchism: Errico
Malatesta’s Experiments with Revolution, 18891900-, which came out in 2012. There he gave
an overview of the career and political development of Malatesta. Now Turcato has compiled
a collection of Malatesta’s writings in this new book, which is an appetiser for the
project of all of Malatesta’s writings in ten volumes(!) to be also brought out by AK
Press in the coming period. ---- Malatesta was one of the ablest militants of the
international anarchist movement and he was active in it for more than sixty years. From
his association with one of the founders of anarchism, the Russian Bakunin, within the
first mass organisation of the working class, the First International, through his exile
in Argentina, Egypt, and England, and on to his involvement in the revolutionary events in
post-World War One Italy and his final house arrest
by Mussolini and subsequent death, Malatesta
maintained a more or less uninterrupted activity
for the cause. He was above all distinguished
by his pragmatism, his advocacy of effective
organisation, his many articles for the anarchist
press expressed in simple and uncomplicated
language that explained often complex ideas.
Here indeed we have many articles on the problem
of organisation. He again and again underlines the
need for anarchists to create effective organisations
and to relate these organisations to the mass
of the people. At the same time he emphasises
the need to steer away from electoralism and
the abandonment of the revolutionary road, just
for “something to do” in the place of struggle.
Above all, he urges anarchists to immerse
themselves in the daily struggles of the
working class.
Whilst he welcomed the development of anarcho-
syndicalist and revolutionary syndicalist organisations,
he was all too aware of their shortcomings. He was
one of the first to develop the idea of the General
Strike as a revolutionary weapon as the result of his
observation of the strikes in Britain in 1889. Whilst
he lauded the effectiveness of this method he did not
think it could be the be-all and end-all of revolutionary
struggle. He does not confuse it with the social
revolution itself, stating that “It would only be a splendid
opportunity for making the Revolution, but nothing
more.” A general strike would have to be transformed
and supplemented by revolutionary action.
The book contains many of his best known explanations of anarchism and of anarchist aims,
including his Anarchy, Towards Anarchy, and The Anarchist Programme. His committed
internationalism is revealed in his polemics against his old comrade Kropotkin, who took
the side of the Allies in the First World War.
Similarly he addresses himself to the many problems of social revolution in his no-
nonsense way. He outlines the problems that an unfolding revolution would face and how
they could be overcome, whilst at the same time criticising Leninist concepts of revolution.
There is much here of value to both newcomers to the anarchist movement, and those who
would like to learn more about anarchism, as well as veterans of the movement. Malatesta’s
ideas are argued in an uncomplicated and pragmatic way, and his grasp of strategy and his
clear-headed approach are at all times apparent.
A valuable contribution to the renewal of the revolutionary anarchist project.
